Violin to Erhu

[notmadeinzhongguo]

I was wondering how difficult it would be to play violin music on the erhu. Would it be relatively easy or pretty hard? Cause there are a few violin songs that I would love to learn.

[davidmdahl]

Of course this is going to depend on the violin music. Some Western tunes are reasonably easy to play on erhu. My first tune in fact was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. ;D Some violin music uses the full resources of the instrument, and these may be virtuoso showpieces on erhu. An example of this is the Carmen Fantasy. Tunes that require playing more than one string at a time may be more than a bit of a challenge.

I would not be shy about transposing violin tunes into keys that are manageable on erhu. If you need to play such tunes with other instruments, you may be able to tune the strings such that playing in your chosen key turns out right.

Best wishes,

David

[calden]

Many old-time fiddle tunes play nicely on the erhu. However one must remember the string limitations, and you can't go below the D. It's also trickly to play in the second position to get above the high D, but it can be done. I like to fool with American folk tunes on the erhu, and if there's a high "B" part (there often is - a variation of the "A" part but an octave higher - this is often true for Irish music as well) I'll just drop it back down to the lower octave.

Carlos

[YouLanFengChune]

Hey!

It is just normal. For conservatory students, everyone does a ciolin concerto or 2 on erhu.
In my music school, most teachers play sarasate, paganini, tchaikovsky etc

my own correspondent is doing paganini's 24th caprice and san sean's havanaise

[YouLanFengChune]

BY THE WAY,

The Erhu, Dizi , and everything else we are discussing, today, are NO LONGER Chinese Instruments. They are INTERNATIONAL.

One day we will have erhu made in USA, Pipa fashioned in siberia, and guzheng made in Brazil...